Zydus Cadila files IND for new drug ZYH7

Zydus Cadila has filed an Investigational New Drug (NID) application for seeking DCGI's permission for conducting clinical trials for its New Molecular Entity (NME) ZYH7.

According to a company release, it claims that ZYH7 is a novel drug candidate for treating dyslipidemia and metabolic disorders. The company inform that ZYH7 had been conceptualised and developed by its scientists from Zydus Research Centre.

The company has its in-house research centre and it had recently concluded pre-clinical studies on ZYH7, which have reported interesting and encouraging finding which indicate a novel molecule to treat dyslipidemia and associated metabolic disorders.

Commenting on the new development, Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director, Zydus Cadila said, "We have been building a promising pipeline of new molecular entities at the Zydus Research Centre and ZYH7 is an important step in this direction".

Starting with its first IND filing in 2005, Zydus today has four INDs in various stages of clinical trials. NME - ZYH1 for treating dyslipidemia and ZYI1 for treating pain and inflammation are undergoing Phase II trials. ZYH2 for treating diabetes and the novel CB-1 antagonist, ZYO1 for treating obesity, are undergoing Phase I trials.

Diabetes, a worldwide health problem, affects more than 150 million people, a number expected to double to 300 million by 2025. People with diabetes are at especially high risk for dyslipidemia, particularly high triglyceride levels and low HDL levels.

Dyslipidemia is also a key independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the largest therapeutic segment in the world pharmaceutical market.

With an increasing correlation between several endocrine and metabolic disorders, there has been considerable emphasis in recent times on metabolic syndrome. The metabolic components of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, are linked in numerous ways with each having an impact on the other.

For instance, it is also well known that patients with Type 2 diabetes have a two to four-fold excess risk of coronary heart disease and that these patients very often have increased cardiovascular risk factors even before the onset of their diabetes.